The FARC-EP: Red-headed stepchild of 1st world revolutionaries. Good, bad or just keepin it real?

Hey, some very creative stuff here guys. Love the art. I've spent all my posting time 2nite at the 200 yrs thread. Now I'm off to work on 3 essays and study for 2 test. Ugh. Watch this space for responses soon.

kisses,

Jonny

So many questions, so much homework...

From what I've read of the high volume of posts about the definition of worker's power, whether or not the Soviet Union was socialist in the 80's, whether state power is innately and miraculously corrupting, why we should support Orwell' s snitching on "totalitarian" communists, I do beleive that my original feeling that many frequently-posting libcommers have confused about class struggle. the "communism" in Libcom need not reflect "international Socialist" and Trotskyist practices of attacking workers advances from the left mixed with liberalism. Confusing fabricated statistics from Robert Conquest and his ilk with the truth doesnt help anyone. I get the feeling that many posters on this thread would vastly prefer what they have now to any worker's state, because they believe that states are imbued with innate characteristics that always result in
men turning into Orwell's swine. That's OK, and so are the various projects many of us are no doubt working hard at. I hope I
may be forgiven for stating that workers are generally better off in socialist states(vietnam) than mixed monarchies (Thailand).

The common (among anti-communists of all flags) mischaracterization that communists today are seeking to repeat the successes of the past :

(defeated co-ordinated invasion by 16 imperialist nations, defeated German fascism, heroic moves that ended South African apartheid, literacy to billions, sophisticated education to billions, some to the level of space technology, industrialized and modernized nations quickly, exported over 100,000 doctor volunteers to needy, hundreds of thousands of free eye operations to needy,
threw off colonial yokes, propelled women's and racial equality forward, overthrew monarchies, introduced popular organs of people's power, ended landlordism on their territories, made prostitution more a choice than a sole option, offering continued political asylum to runaway slaves like Assata Shakur, etc etc etc.)

and ALSO the failures and mistakes:

(Spurious establishment of friendly border states by any means, misunderstanding homosexuality, feeling compelled to "compete" with Capitalist states on their own terms to the detriment of the population, Cults of personality(now avidly and somewhat comically persued by Avakian's otherwise solid movement), assuming that all religion and spirituality are incompatible with socialism, non-internationalist socialism oriented to just one country, constant and bitter internecine rifts over differing historical interpretations or total platforms that take us from today to the Rev, not trusting the people enough to give them the power, not appreciating the strength of cultural forces to reproduce non-institutional gender inequity even after the economic and legal underpinnings of such had been removed, selling items needed for imperialist warfare to imperialists using it to attack other workers states, not offering sufficient solidarity and defensive aid to other socialist states,belief that one workers state has the right to impose its worldview and strategies on other worker states, socialist states can revise the past in the same way capitalist states do, etc etc etc. )

I'm sure I missed a few on both lists, but you get the picture.

I think it's important for all anarchists and communists respect the validity of, and understand all of the experiments in workers power, from the Paris Commune to the Spanish Civil War to Cuba. Also, we must realize and recognize that nobody is striving to repeat any mistakes of the past, and that past acheivements
do serve as a powerful incentive to continue the struggle.

For those who wish to continue attacking worker's states, and to conflate socialism with fascism, here is some more detailed material (along the lines of whats been posted on this thread) with which to do so.
http://www.paulbogdanor.com/deniers.html

A detailed account of Orwell and his anticommunism can be found here (caution, heretic source):
http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv4n1/orwell.htm

Regarding the IRA, I (unloaded unprompting) asked my Irish mother her opinion. She believes that the current rise in quality of life and opportunities for formerly discriminated against Irish are due to the IRA campaign, and that the rampant and increasing poverty in India reflects the outcome of the non-confrontational strategy of the Indian social movements. My mum " disrupting business as usual and upping the ante against the Brits led to political enfranchisement, and positive results can be seen today".

(wiki)
Journalists Eamonn Mallie and Patrick Bishop estimate in The Provisional IRA (1988), that between 8-10,000 Provisional IRA members were, up until that point, imprisoned during the course of the conflict, a number they also give as the total number of IRA members during the Troubles. According to the CAIN research project at the University of Ulster, the Provisional IRA was responsible for the deaths of 1,821 people during the Troubles up to 2001. Now, I know 1821 people sounds bad. Wiki has the breakdown of how many were RUC, British occupation soldiers, etc etc.
For some context, that's about five years of Irish auto fatalities. So the IRA was far less lethal than the private automobile. To further complicate matters, some "IRA bombings" are known to be organized by British agents. see
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1869019,00.html
AND there were/are various factions within the IRA, as well as offshoots with different names.

Back to USSR:
Here's some good stuff on the sources of many of the prevalent and near-hegemonic lies about the USSR.
http://www.northstarcompass.org/nsc9912/lies.htm

PS: Alf, loved your show, I was wondering where you'd been since 1986, glad to hear you are well. Love your site.
http://www.geocities.com/alf_tribute/

So, let's get this discussion back on topic. I'd like to see some sourced, specific disses of the FARC-EP, preferably more creative than baby-killing or cannibalism. Hit me. I have a paper to write on this, so I need to know what liberals and ultra-liberals are thinking. hehe.

Apart from cantdocartwheels' psychic abilities at guessing the age and occupations of posters(don't feel bad, every seer is wrong sometimes. it happened to Nostradamus too), nothing new has been brought up. I still don't know or care much about Trotsky, or the situation of anarchists in North Korea, Fervent denunciation of North Korea, focusing specifically on little understood cultural characteristics of people who were never trained up to be presentable to us, as the Japanese were by the MacArthur regime. Most Japs thought their emperor devine before that. I'm guessing that Koreans would find alot of shit over here pretty trippy too. Denounce it all you like, nobody is out there championing democratic centralism, or the DPRK's style of such as the apex of human potential, but it is imho beneficial to understand the historical development of the DPRK, and not to be baffled by corporate news accounts of a "crazy maniac" leading a "slave state". (Nobody will think less of anyone for surpassing the knee-jerk denunciation response). Forgive Koreans for having the political agency to deviate from their assigned role in the international system, and hold that line against all comers. My years working in Japan allowed me the opportunity to meet working-class Koreans from both sides of the 30,000 strong US presence that divides them, and none of them believed the propaganda about the DPRK , though all of them believed the vast majority of people all over Korea want the US soldiers expelled, and re-unification. Forgive me for understanding and empathizing with my friends. Unfortunately, like Afghanistan, Korea happens to be located on a chunk of land of very high geo-strategic importance. Understanding a situation doesn't make one an automatic supporter of that situation.

Hmmm....it's a long shot, but I'm gonna try to get this thread back on track. After a concession:

Many people have asked me with varying levels of rudeness(some none!) about what flag I fly ideologically, and what my idea of political development is. I'll try to sum it up. The ability of reactionaries to claim whatever flag they wish, and invert/destroy the meaning of that flag from Bob Black and Zerzan pissing on the black, to fake CPs such as the one here in Canada, or 1930s Spaine pissing on the red, has jaded me towards labels. I'm just a working-class militant with ideas and dreams. I'd like to feudal remnants in Canada such as landlordism and the British Crown ended within my lifetime. Collective land title and proportional representation for indigenous Canadians in any format of decisionmaking organ, real gender equality, production for the people, taking apart the Canadian arm of the hard drug industry, etc etc etc. I'm personally not too picky about how gains are won(federations? soviets? collectives? councils?, as long as they are real, won and continue to be won. Sum it up as ending gender, economic, political, colonial, racial, etc....injustice. Not as exciting as some may have hoped? I'm as active as I can be in the student movement with 5 classes and 2 jobs and a partner, looking to run a slate for the next election. Currently, my favorite authors include Assata Shakur, Christian and his dad Michael Parenti, Ward Churchill, Michael Lebowitz, James Petras and Stan Goff. Musically, I'm into 2pac, the Coup, 80's new wave, and the Dixie Chix.

Hopefully that will satisfy the repeated requests for personal information.

P.S. I like long walks at sunset.

Back on track..let's stay on it.

According to Amnesty International, in Columbia, for most people affordable contraceptives do not exist.
Interestingly, the FARC-EP's provision of contraceptives to woman fighters has been characterized as forced administration, and as a violation of these fighters' human rights. I touch on that in the paper below, sources included. One gets the feeling that Amnesty is reaching a wee bit too much on this one.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dch952pm_359bnnmh

It reminds me of the cold war propaganda approach....
if there are food shortages, the Reds are starving their own people.
If there is abundance, the Reds are cunningly lulling the restive population into complacency with food.

Maybe it's just me, but..
Last time I checked, the Euro-American Empire was calling the shots on the expansion and consolidation of global capitalism. Anti-imperialism is fundamental to anti-capitalism, because imperialism is a fundamental part of capitalism as we know it.
We are clearly of differing opinion on what constitutes a break from capitalism. I'm OK with that. For you, it seems that what most call revolutions have been disasters, and that a revolutionary society would have to somehow avoid trading on the international market, lest it become "state capitalist". I know that a revolutionary Canada wouldn't last long without international trade in types of food we can't grow here, medical innovations, etc. We've already talked enough about your oversimplifications, so I'll just leave you where you are on those points. (note my lack of desire to distort your positions) Suffice it to say that the world is complicated enough for both of us to exist.

Say, how might a struggle that lives up to your standard of a revolutionary country/territory
obtain material neccessities while encircled by hostile capitalist nations? Any real-world examples would be welcome. And how might that geographical territory disuade or repel the multinational united capitalist invasions sure to come? Again, if you can think of any examples, I'd like to hear em.

Jonny: Say, how might a struggle that lives up to your standard of a revolutionary country/territory obtain material neccessities while encircled by hostile capitalist nations?

Joseph K: a problem mainly for nationalists. internationalists don't aim for socialism in one country by trying to seize state power in 'national liberation' struggles and we recognise that isolation is already a defeat which at best we can mitigate to prevent it being a disaster. internationalists are don't aim for this scenario though, our praxis being internationally linked class struggles, whereas national liberationists (if they succeed) guarantee it: isolation is the best-case scenario for national liberation 'socialism in one country.' that's not to say there's anything easy about international proletarian revolution, it's never been done before and is pretty uncharted territory, certainly less charted than grabbing some AKs and holing up in la salva, but at least it's best case scenario isn't failure.

We have a group called the International Socialists (IS) in Vancouver and Victoria, BC, Canada, with that exact analysis, and sharing your hostility towards people who have prematurely liberated chunks of territory. It would be much cleaner if we couild all go...1...2....3....OK! NOW! and all have our revolutions together, but unfortunately, revolutionary forces and their enemies do not exist in equal proportions in all (what we have now)countries/regions at any given time, nor are revolutionary advances as predictable and co-ordinatable as your theory might require. The hermetic sealing of borders with large walls/fences (Israel-Palestine, USA-Mexico) and large bodies of water, combined with different access to communications and propaganda tools, as well as differing relative proximities to puppet armies of varying sizes will present real challenges to your international co-ordination of revolutions. Last time I checked, the revolutionaries in Nepal, Columbia, Venezuela, India, etc. were all thinking and co-ordinating continentally. That whole socialism in one country thing is passe for them. I imagine after another world war, there may be some revolutions that happen to occur in the same week, but that wouldnt be enough...you want the whole big marble at once. How precocious!